7 Principles on Public Debate

Debating is a great art, and a great enjoyment. Not all the people indulge in debating, but others with a democratic spirit do. I'm one of those, and in the process of reflecting on my own style of debating I've reached certain principles of debate. This applies more to social networks, the new public forum for the exchange of ideas, mostly political, but not excepting religious or philosophical or otherwise. But because religious is most of the time an extremely sensible topic, and for good reasons, I'm going to remain in the realm of political speech.

1: Debate is not an act of social agreeability. That is, don't debate for the purpose of being liked by others. Do it because you have an idea and you want to make its case against the opposition of others.
If you are too much concerned about what others might think of you, and you aim at leaving a good impression on other people's minds, then debating is not your art. Engaging in an exchange of political speech demands that you pay heed to your ideas first, and to the ideas of the others, second. Not to the opinions others might have of you personally. Aim at ideas and arguments, not at your self-esteem.

2: True debate demands that you begin by casting doubt on your own argument. That is, leaving a space of doubt from which the argument of another might come in. Otherwise you would never be open to what another might be saying, and debate becomes impossible. Always hear the argument of your opponent, and try to figure out in what aspects is it convincing, so that you might adapt those aspects into your own argument.

3: It follows that the aim of debating is "the best argument", not necessarily your first argument. You can change it as the debate moves forward, always having in mind that you want to perfect your first argument, if it still holds. If it does not hold in the end, then debate is over and you lost. But never forget that in debating, losing sometimes makes you win, because then you can wield the winning argument in another conversation.

4: In order for this to be possible, you need to abstract yourself to a certain extent. That is, never go personal. Debaters that go personal are only diverting the conversation because they are scared of being challenged in their ideas. Never do this. It is very easy to fall into this sin of debate, but you must recognize when it is happening to you and change your approach completely.
In the same way, when you see someone becoming too personally sensible, that person is not willing to honestly debate. Next point will expand on this.

5.0: Identify your opponent. This requires more extension.

5.1: Know if your opponent is making a self-righteous argument. It is really easy to identify this, because self-righteous arguments are usually one dimensional, simple minded and unrealistic. People that engage in these are, in my view, lacking in concrete data or intellectual background on the topic, but have passion for it, so they need to give their opinion. The easiest way to make an opinion is by wielding a normative claim. So a lot of people engage in this, especially in the social networks because I guess you wouldn't invite one of these for dinner.
Self-righteous people come from simple moral assumptions. They are easy to identify because usually they express them for themselves. The problem with speaking politics from moral assumptions is that, most of the time, they are crowded with ideology, and ideology is very difficult to cast out. People feel that they are in the right, and any kind of compromise means giving up to evil. And, of course, no one reasonable wants to give in to evil.  The first thing, and most important, eliminate any good/evil (manicheist) structure of argument from your own argument.
So, when you recognize a self-righteous debater, make him know: first, that he is naive and simple minded, and second, never give in to his/her sophistry. Attack it furiously and ridicule him/her, because there are few things worse than a self-righteous argument unconcerned for realistic and interesting debate. In sooth, they are not arguments, because they are not interested in being argued. Out of a self-righteous speech, an argument is impossible.

5.2: This is connected with the previous rule. Don't be politically correct. Move your argument if you think it's reasonable. How do you know if it's not reasonable? Because you might be using a manicheist structure of argument that cannot reach a final and better conclusion.
Remember, being politically correct breaks the rule of being concerned with ideas instead than with your self-esteem, or with opinions others might have of you. You don't care what others might think or say of you. You are only concerned with having the better argument. If others think you are being offensive, that's their problem and their Freudian complexes, not yours. Others should understand when you are moving a reasonable argument and not a manicheistic, ill-willed speech. If they cannot recognize this, don't waste your argument with those people.

5.3: Don't debate with people that don't want to debate back. This is a hard one, because it's easy to fall in the temptation of crushing someone with low self-esteem. But there are two basic types of these: a) the people with low self-esteem, frightened at the possibility of an argument. In this case it simply might not be Christian to castigate these people, even though the temptation is always present. Usually you will simply stop talking because the other is too frightened to say anything at all, and that is very discouraging. b) The arrogant that think that debate is a waste of time because their ideas are so perfectly right. These are much worse, because it's people that don't think you are worth having a good and interesting conversation. They simply don't answer back because they think low of you. It happens all the time in certain academic environments. Usually they just want to ridicule your speech, or hear you for a moment, while rejecting your specifics with small comments without framing their own argument, so that it is impossible for you to strike back. They hold what they think in order not to expose it to attacks. Cowardice, I know. But it's not infrequent.
I'm still not sure how to tackle this type, but my intuition tells me that the best way to handle them is to wield your argument so aggressively as to shake their space of comfort, and take some pleasure out of that small revenge.

5.4: There remains the good type of opponents, the kind you can go on debating for a life time. That is, those that have a similar approach than you. They don't get easily offended, they are willing to frame complex arguments, and answer back your attacks with good defense and competent counter attacks, so that you can learn from them. The exchange can appear to be very aggressive indeed, but as long as none of you gets personally offended, then you are doing fine.
Of course there will always be people you don't agree with, because as soon as you recognize their abstract principles, you acknowledge that they are formally opposed to yours. When both recognize this, usually the conversations run very deep and philosophical, but without much hope of reaching a final conclusion. You can still learn from the different arguments, but you must yield the possibility of convincing or being convinced in an absolute sense. So simply enjoy the debate.
There are others with a more pragmatic approach that are willing to trade off some of their principles and move forward to a new level of conversation. You must try to be the same way, and maybe, a final conclusion can be reached. However, that is unlikely.
In any case, these are the good guys, the ones you can really engage in long, interesting and fraternal conversations, however opposed the arguments might be.

6: Remember that all kinds of arguments, no matter what, have an intellectual background and a set of abstract principles. When hearing someone's case, you will hear a lot of specifics. Remaining in the realm of specifics never gives you the chance to reach a final, better carved argument, because you could go on debating at infinitum without true learning. Identify where the argument is coming from, by digging into its intellectual background, and by forcing your opponent to reach his/her abstract principles.
This is done by putting a lot of pressure on your opponent, asking uncomfortable questions and making bold statements. If you know some history of political thought, you may even identify the background of any argument by identifying its abstract principles. Then, you already know the family of arguments that are already part of that debate, and you can wield arguments from people smarter than you from previous times or better schools.

7: Try to argue from your own intellectual background and abstract principles without sounding too pedantic. It is true that by doing this, it is inevitable that you will distill some pedantry, but depending on the level of intellectual formation of your opponent, you may show more or less pedantry. It is very important not to sound too pedantic if you are debating with someone with much lower levels of knowledge than you, for two reasons: a) you don't want to alienate your opponent by instilling in him/her resentment and, b) you don't want to confuse him/her so as to appear that you are lecturing. Lectures are not debates.

Conclusion: these are principles better assumed in political and public debates, acknowledging that religion moves in a different direction (i.e. converting the other person into your religion without being converted back). Your aim is to find out the better argument, by assuming that your a priori ideas are not the better ones, and you want to learn from your opponent some things that might enhance your speech. It is done by contesting your opponnent's arguments to the level where you can be convinced of some of it, and integreate it to your own argument. This inevitably changes some aspects of your a priori ideas, but for the better.
Finally, wherever you hear or read self-righteousness or political correctness, make war on it like it is a jihad.